The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-02-25
HOW 1T WORKS.
A Warmer Who Does Not Understand
Why He Has Lost Every TIL ng Under
tt5s "FAtherIy" American System.

farmers in the United States. Come
with me to the home of one of these
men, whom know well, and see if it is
3 fitting home for an American citizen.
just west of the main county road
snd on section twenty-one, township
sixteen, range one, west of the sixth
principal meridian in Saline County
Kan, stands a small frame shanty.
The ground plan of this house meas
ures twelve by fourteen feet. The walls
are seven feet high. 1t is almost in the
center of an estate of 1920 acres of
productive corn land, all of which is
rented to tenants by its owner, nom
resident,
The house was made by mailing
dnplaned boards upright from the silIs
TO the plates. The cracks between
these boards are battened with lath and
pieces of narrow boards. The walls of
the building have spread slightly, ard
the roof sags and consequently leaks
little during rainy weather There is
small Une-sash window on the north
ern side of the house, and smaller
window on the Southern side. Several
glasses have been broken ont of these
sashes and the open spaces have been
stuffed with gunny sacks, the ends of
which flap in the wind. There are two
doors: One opened to the east, the
other to the vest Both of them are
racked and split, and they are held
together by boards nailed across them:
At one time the inside of the house was
plastered, but long since the plas-
ter has cracked ana large pieces
have fallen. The cracks between the
laths are stuffed with rags and pieces
of paper to retain the scanty supply of
heat thrown, out by an old battered
and cracked cooking stove, which is
fed with corn cobs. In the northeast
corner of the house stands rickety
bedstead, and on it is a thin mattress
and some lumpy cotton bed clothing.
On the floor in another corner is the
children's bed, dirty pile of rags. A
small table stands near the center OF
the room. A few cooking utensils hang
from nails which have been driven
into the wall behind the stove. Around
the table stand three chairs and two
empty soap boxes, The latter a gift
from a storekeeper anxious to ses
cure trade. A few ironstone and
yellow ware dishes lie on a board
which has been nailed shelf-like
on the western wall of the room. Three
small and dirty bottless which once
contained patent medicine, have been
tied together and hung festoon-hke
from a nail. The walls and ceiling of
Il
smoke and dirt. The undulating floor
is pierced by many knot holes into
which corn cobs have been thrust to
keep out the cold air. The cold air
Sits through this shanty as flour
through a sieve. During the winter,
when arctic-like blizsards sweep out of
the north, the frail house rocks; and
icy, child-killing draughts sweep
through it. In the summer the small
room is heated as an oven, and the
women, whose work keeps them in
and they suffer.
Six persons live in this house. They
are very poor. The women and chill
dren are habitually unshOd. Their
clothing is scanty in quantity and of the
poorest quality. One-third of the grain
they raise is delivered to the landlord
to pay for the use of the land. No
newspaper enters this home of poverty.
No books are there. Food, bacon and
cornmeal is plentiful. These tenants
toll all day. They sleep all night to
gain toll the next day, and that re-
peated day after day, week after week,
month after month and year after year,
is their life. There is no future before
these people. They have sunk into the
slough of despair, and they lie mOodily
and savagely brooding in it. Almost
yearly a child is born in the foul shanty.
The weak ones quickly die and are
buried. The tough pull through the
heats of summer and the icy blasts of
winter. Seemingly they are indiffer-
ent to heat or cold, to hunger or
thirst. They are strangers to the SIM
plest comforts of life. No possible
change, except a widespread famine,
could make their material welfare
worse. The ignorance of the children
is profound. They know nothing,
except to work and to endure.
The father of this family, a soldier
during the war of the rebellion, owned
a small farm in Southern Illinois. The
land was not naturally productive, but
for years he and his family lived in
comparative comfort on the results of
their toll. Several years ago the value
of agricultural produce began to de-
crease. Steadily, year after year, the
prices went down, and down. and
down. My acquaintance could no
longer live on the proceeds of his toll
The country merchants pressed him to
pay his bills. He laid a small mort
gage on his few acres. That ended his
life as a free holder. He struggled for
a year or two. Then the mortgage
was foreclosed and from free holder
he became a tenant, and his children
will be peasants.
One sunny Sunday last October this |
man and l sat together on a log at |
creek bank, and he endeavored to ex-
plain to me how he had lost his proper |
ty, but the problem was too complex |
for his limited intelligence to grasp. |
PatheticalIy he said: 1.-The price of all |
l had to sell went down. Taxes kept /
up and so did the price Of all the arti- I
cles | bought. | could not pay the in
terest on my mortgage notes. My farm |
was taken from me. That was just. I /
had agreed to that when / borrowed |
the money. But there is something I
wrong. | do not understand why what /
1 had to sell should fall in value, aud |
every thing bought keep up. I am
an uneducated man. l do not under /
stand this matter. only know that I /
have been ruined. and l shall never be- ]
Iieve that it was my fault or that it was
fairly done -